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Category 2: Motivation

Motivation is one of the critical factor in generating high productivity and employee

satisfaction. Employee motivations vary between cultures and also between individuals. From

the interviews, we found that Taiwanese are a collective and modest in nature. Especially in the

work place, Taiwanese are motivated by affiliation, and people focus on getting the job done and

do whatever it takes to complete a task for the good of the group, including working overtime.

They prefer to work cooperatively with their co-workers, and personal interaction is highly

preferred. Employees in Taiwan often prefer that their bosses should understand employees

personal problems; also employees expect personal loyalty from their bosses. In American

culture, on the other hand, employees are often motivated by individual achievements, and they

would like to perform well individually. Besides, American employees give much priority to

interesting work and expect the appreciation of their individual work rather than the group work.

Taiwan employees are non-confrontational and they rarely speak up. If their work in not

recognized, then employees will just take time off instead of complaining about their work not

being recognized. Monetary rewards are very much acceptable. Besides, many incentives are

done privately as public recognition is generally frowned upon as being boastful. Taiwanese give

high priority to job security and good wages. In contrast, American employees give less priority

good wages, rather they prefer to set goals themselves, have control over their functions, and

have more leadership roles.

a. Personal Challenges:As a leader, you have to create an environment where employees can be motivated and

empowered themselves. Motivation is an ongoing task. In a collectivist society, such as

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Taiwanese, employees consider rewards to be distributed equally among group members, so

sense of personal accomplishment is it is difficult to set. Besides, setting SAMRT goals

(Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic, Time-based) also not very easy. Moreover, giving

a feedback is tricky because direct feedback is not acceptable in Taiwan culture.

b. EthnocentrismOpen communication:

In individual cultures open communication is allowed, so managers can give direct

feedback and motivate employees to meet the common goals and tailor the expertise of

these individuals easily. Often manager in our culture easily conduct regular sessions to

meet with employees and offers suggestions and take feedback, so managers can tailor

their motivational strategies based on the feedback they receive from their employees.

Employee involvement

In American culture, rather than agreeing to what manager decide, employees openly

argue if there is any flaw in the solution that the manager proposed. This leads to more

innovation, collaboration and creativity. On the other hand, in collective cultures most of

times employee never raise any concerns and just agree what managers said.